Halo: Alternative
by Cannibal.Pride
Summary: Years after the incident of New Phoenix, John as a captain of UNSC Aide-De-Campe was sent to a Forerunner Shield to investigate the frequent disappearance of UNSC ships, unaware of how their lives are going to change...
1. Chapter 1: Big Fucking Object

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Halo and Muv-luv franchise as they belong to bungie and age respectively.

* * *

Chapter 1: Big Fu*cking Object

* * *

The battle was over... Didact was defeated but with high casualties.

The every living being in New Phoenix was composed... there was no way to bring them back, even the Forerunners are not capable of that.

After the Incident, John returned while carrying a piece of his faithful companion, Cortana. The UNSC spent billions just to try repair her, using every scrap of Forerunner, and Covenant technology they can find. For months, there was no success yielded, with the current tools they have, It was not enough. John participated the second battle of Requiem to find any kind Forerunner tech that help repair his AI.

There, John found what he was looking for, the Janus key and Dr. Halsey. After defeating Jul'Mdama, John encountered another one of the Librarian's imprint. There, she gave John the Janus key, a tool that gives the real time location of every piece of Forerunner tech in the Galaxy.

It was then that the Golden age for mankind had started. With Janus key the UNSC and the Covenant Separatist made giant leaps in technology and Cortana was finally repaired and upgraded with Forerunner tech. The ONI helped to repair by reverse engineering various Forerunner tech but their constant saboutage against alien races forced the UNSC to stop their operations. But the ONI attacked pre-emptively by hitting most of the UNSC leaders and the Covenant ambassadors during a meeting. The coup was foiled when a joint Human and Covenant force successfully assassinaed the director of ONI, Serin Osman.

Even after Cortana's repair, John was not in an illusion that the UNSC repaired Cortana from the kindness in their hearts, it was because of the vast amounts of knowledge about Forerunners that made her very important.

A year after the second battle of Requiem, John was made officer, a captain of a ship, to be exact. The Spartans were given a choice to whether become an officer or take a vacation as they weren't really needed anymore, the UNSC concentrated on discovering and researching Forerunner techs and artifacts, they were occasionally deployed to clear traces of the Flood in shield worlds but they were few and far in between.

John is made captain of the UNSC Aide-De-Campe, a 470 meter stealth frigate. The ship is formerly owned by ONI, it fell to UNSCDF after ONI's coup d'etat. The ship is primarily used to scout, survey any signs of Flood and to support larger battlegroups.

The UNSC Aide-De-Campe is now on an uncharted systen on the edge of Orion Arm. John, the captain of the ship, was tasked to investigate the constant disappearance of scout ships sent to survey the Shield World present on the planet.

The higher ups suspected a Flood outbreak, if so it must be contained immidiately. Considering his and Cortana's knowledge and personal experience with the Flood, they were sent to scout and survey their disappearance and report back.

Now, they just exited slipspace in the outskirts of the systems and John, like some of the crew, could not help but be surprised.

The shield world of their objective was wrapped by what seems to be a gigantic, white, thick cloth. The cloth-lookalike in question was wrapped tightly to the shield world.

"Cortana, what is that thing?" John questioned Cortana's hologram.

"...I don't know... scans show that it is a kilometers thick megastructure that is composed of unknown materials and made with unknown method. It doesn't match any Forerunner construct I know of." Cortana answered in slight shame, probably because she could not be of any help or because even with her vast knowledge of the Forerunners, the object isn't something she recognized.

John began comtemplating his options. He is reluctant of approaching the unknown but on the other hand, he needed to investigate the multiple disappearance on this area.

"John... I think I just found our missing ships..." Cortana called out.

"What? Where?" John asked.

In reply, an image appeared in front of him. The image showed pieces of metals orbiting the planet. A few pieces with distinctive grey color managed to garner his attention.

"Titanium A..." John murmured. He finally found what happened to the missing ships, Titanium A plating is generally used as plating on almost all UNSC ships. The cause of their destruction, however, remains unknown.

'Can it be the Covenant remnants? No, the Covenant remnants are on the other side of the galaxy... It can't be the Flood as they are no signs of infestation... Is this structure somehow connected to this... regardless, a survivor might tell us what happened.'

"Set a steady course to the planet and send a signal, scan the surface and search for survivors." John ordered the crew.

"Understood." They chorused as they began to work.

After a few minutes of broadcast and scans, no survivors were detected. The ship is now in orbit, scanning the surface for lifepods and dropships.

"Chief! The structure is moving!" Cortana warned.

The white object was indeed moving, part of it is unwrapping the planet, who shook as a result.

The crew and John could not help but stare with wide eyes in awe.

The end of the object exited the atmosphere, to the orbit.

John felt dread inside, his instinct is screaming for him to run away.

"It's heading towards us, Chief, collision is imminent!" Cortana warned.

"Activate the thrusters and lets get out of here!" John commanded the crew, who were happy to obey.

Suddenly, an electric pulse ran through the ship. The engines powered down as a result.

"Situation report!" John barked out.

"Main power core is down."

"Engine and thrusters are offline."

"Active Optical Camouflage, shield and weapon systems is also offline."

"Comms are down."

"Technicians report that multiple wires and circuits were fried, but nothing major." The crew reported.

A holographic image of the ship then showed the damages to John. All, except some burnt wires and circuits, damages are electrical rather than physical.

'EMP? No, we have systems to counter EMP installed. Is this like what happened to Infinity on Requiem?' John thought.

"Switch to emergency power and get us out of here." John ordered.

The UNSC Aide-De-Campe then activated the thrusters. But it showed little progress as the planet's gravitational pull is strong.

"Chief, the planet's gravity well is too strong! We'll get crushed at this rate!" Cortana informed.

John looked at the fast approaching white object and then the image of the ship. The ship cannot evade, the structure is too large and too fast.

"Is the Slipspace drive good?" He asked Cortana.

"It was hit but nothing major, it is still operational. It needs time to recharge though."

"Enough time to make a jump before that thing hits us?"

"Negative, we won't jump in time."

The Spartan gritted his teeth in frustation as he planned on how to avoid the object.

"Turn the ship around, and set a course to the planet." He ordered.

The crew were surprised and some wondered if he is crazy.

"To the planet, sir?" An officer sceptically asked.

"_To the planet._" The supersoldier confirmed.

The crew reluctantly did so. The ship then used the planets gravity to accelerate itself but the structure is still following them.

"Approaching the planet's atmosphere." An officer reported.

With the shields down, the only thing that protects them from the extreme heat is the hull plating made of the Hephaestus Alloy.

"Do not decelerate, maintain current speed and avoid crashing." John ordered.

"With the current direction and velocity, a crash would be inevitable and unescapable! Are you sure about this?"

"Trust me, Cortana, I have a plan."

"Drop the Shiva but do not detonate it yet." The Spartan commanded.

The Shiva is a type of a nuclear bomb commonly used by the UNSC during the Great War. It is used to deactivate energy shields and to use the EMP generated from the blast to disrupt Covenant comms and electrical devices.

The crew obeyed and dropped the nuke.

The white object was still looming behind them, the damages to the surface cause by the structure was within sight.

By this time, most of the crew began to pray to whatever God they worshipped.

Then the shadow of the object was now covering the ship. Clouds were splitted apart and threw aside.

"Detonate the bomb." John ordered.

"Sir? We are still within the blast radius and that thing will be barely touched if we detonate it now." An officer objected.

"We are not doing this to destroy that thing." Seeing the questioning looks given to him, he continued. "Just activate it_, now._" John spoke in a low and intimidating tone.

The officer just gulped and pressed the virtual button.

***Boooooommmmm!***

The nuke then exploded, destroying the terrain and incinerating the trees. The blast radius consumed a lot of space but the structure was unaffected.

John was not surprised that the object was undamaged, Forerunner structures are very resilient and a mere nuke would not destroy them.

The force from the blast propelled the ship to greater speed but it deviated slightly from its course.

"Is the Slipspace ready?" John asked.

"Not yet, a little bit more." Cortana replied.

John narrowed his eyes as he thought. The nuke only served to delay their collision. At this rate, the Aide-De-Campe will crash and be crushed in a few seconds.

"Set the Syura nukes to detonate on impact and drop them immidiately." He told the officers.

This time no-one objected his decisions, either because the Spartan's choices served to prolong their existance or because if they did nothing, they will die either way.

The Syura is a low yield nuclear bomb, generally used by UNSC for clearing enemy bases from orbit.

After dropping the nukes, they detonated after surface contact. It singed the lower part of the ship but did not fatally damage anything vital. The force of the nuke did not send them upward as John thought but it did slow their descent.

The object once again overshadowed them.

"Cortana, are we clear for a jump?" The Spartan inquired.

"A few seconds."

"Initiate a jump immidiately when finished recharging."

"Aye, aye, Skipper."

The rocks are now scratching the bottom ship and the object was getting closer and closer. Parts of the ship are now deformed and decolored, mainly the bottom.

"Impact imminent in 7 seconds!" An officer informed.

"Cortana, how long are those seconds!"

"Impact in 5 seconds!"

"A little more." Cortana answered.

"3 seconds!"

"Cortana."

"Recharge complete, initiating Slipspace jump... now!"

As if on cue a huge two dimensional disc appeared. The slipspace portal scarred the earth and destroyed a lot of trees. This ship slid on the surface and entered the portal.

***Slammm!***

After entering the portal, it closed just before the white structure slammed the ground they were previously on.

~Slipspace~

Inside slipspace, the ship was resounded from the crew's celebration on their survival, even the Spartan can't help but smile at the close encounter.

But in the midst of their celebration, John noticed something strange.

"Cortana, is it supposed to be like this?" John asked.

"No... something is wrong."

It was the slipspace dimension, it is now colored black and purple, different from the normal pitch black. John may lack the technical knowledge of Slipspace but even he knew that something is wrong, very wrong.

*Vrrhheeeeeeeeeennnnnnn* a horrible sound echoed in the CIC, it sounded like a metal is being stretched and twisted.

The sudden and odd sound stopped the crew's celebrations. Everyone looked left and right for the source of the damage.

"Cortana, what was that?"

"Multiple damages in the hull platings but no breaches..."

*Scrreeeettttchhttt*

"Cortana, what is happening?"

"I don't know... detecting multiple anomalies in slipspace." She answered as she furiously tap and swiped various holographic panels and interfaces.

"Is there a problem with the drive?"

"No, not the drive but the dimension... it's as if it is rejecting our drive, the dimension feels different yet the same, it is somehow transformed, mutated." Cortana continued. "Hold on, now exiting slipspace." She announced.

A portal then appeared and the ship entered it.

~Unknown Location~

The UNSC Aide-De-Campe exited slipspace and arrived in front of a red planet.

"Sir, all systems are now online." An officer reported.

"Where are we?" The Spartan asked. But before he was answered...

"Chief, we got a problem." Cortana interrupted.

"What is it?"

"The planet." Chief looked at the oddly familiar red planet. "Geographical and topological scans match, I am certain that is Mars."

Everyone's eyes widened at the reveletion. Chief just stared at the red planet. He cannot see any sign of battle or a colonial city only vast deserts of martian sands.

"Try to contact Mars Command or the colony." He told Cortana.

"Already did but there was no reply, only static." She continued. "But what is more weird is Earth."

A holographic image then appeared, showing humanity's homeworld. Everyone just stared blankly, there is a lot of things wrong with the image, the partial glassing on africa is not seen and the tall skyscrapers, structure, satellites... all wrong.

"I scanned thousand of times, the bodies of water, landmass, every is the same with a few difference, It is Earth."

"Impossible, then where are the UNSC, the home fleet and the orbital platforms?!" One of the crew exclaimed.

Cortana turned to the officer.

"It is Earth or should I say it is an Earth, according to my data, this is not our Earth, everything is almost the same 5 centuries in the past."

John thought about the situation, if Earth was like the one 500 years ago then did they travel through time? There were a few temporal accidents during slipspace transitions but he never thought that he would experience it. There was still the anomaly in the slipspace to consider, did that object somehow, inavertently sent them back through time?

"Cortana, are you saying that we traveled through time?" The Spartan asked.

"Well not exactly, we did not travel vertically, rather, we travelled diagonally through spacetime."

"...what?" Was everyone's confused response.

"Congratulations! Chief, we just travelled to an alternate dimension!" She stated cheerfully.

* * *

**Author's note: **if you read the books, Forerunner trilogy to be exact, then you would know that the white structure is a star road and slipspace anomaly is caused by the star road.

But to those who didnt know, star roads are megastructures built by the precursors, the maker of Forerunner and Humans. They are used by the Flood to defeat the Forerunner's fleet. They can disable Forerunner technology and make their slipspace drives incompatible with slipspace by mutating space-time itself. They, like other neural physic constructs, were destroyed during the firing of halo array.

For more information about star roads, please search in the wiki.

before you ask as to how they survived, they used the shield worlds, which are made to shield Forerunner from the halo array's pulse, to protect itself.

Please review and tell me about your opinions, no flames though. Recommendations are welcomed.


	2. Chapter 2: Revelations

**Disclaimer: **I do not own both the Halo franchise and the Muv-luv franchise as they belong to their respective developers and publishers. This is a fanfiction, I do not earn any money from this.

Reviews Answers:

Persival - The UNSC Aide-de-Campe has the crew of 70-80 UNSC personnel. There only a few because most of the ship is automated and maintained by the Huragok and bringing an army would be counter-productive if the enemy is the Flood.

Ornstein the Dragon Slayer - Whether or not they would save her friends is uncertain but at least one of Yui's friends would survive.

**Author's note: **The stranded UNSC would not let itself be known or serve to any government.

* * *

Chapter 2: Revelation

* * *

"Congratulations! Chief, we just travelled to an alternate dimension!" Cortana stated cheerfully.

Everyone except John who thought deeply stared in surprise in the sheer absurdity of that statement but not one found the strength to deny it.

"Are you sure?" John asked seriously. It's not like her to joke about... well maybe it's like her but even then, the situation is too serious for jokes.

"Certain, all evidence point to that, except if this is some kind of a very convincing illusion. The data I gathered on this Earth's history is distinctly different from our own but not that much."

Dimensional travel? That's kind of far-fetched... Cortana is rarely wrong... not counting a few situations (Halo, Requiem, etc). But still...

"Isn't that a bit..."

"What? Far-fetched? Unbelievable? Impossible? Not exactly, the UNSC already theorized about parallel dimensions even before the discovery of FTL travel. Even the energy the Forerunners use originated from the infinite amount of alternative universes. The limitless energy utilized in the Halo Array and other Forerunner constructs and artifacts further proves the existence of parallel dimensions."

"…" Everyone fell silent.

Seeing their silence, Cortana continued. "And, technically, slipspace jumps are also dimensional travel, when initiating a jump, we travel to one of the 7 dimensions of slipspace parallel to our own.

"...How did this happen?" The Chief asked the crew's unheard questions. (Though he is now a Captain I will call him Chief or Master Chief at times, somehow 'Captain' doesn't suit John)

"I am not sure but the anomaly we encountered during our jump may be the cause of this situation." Cortana theorized.

"…" The CIC was once again silent.

"...Is there a way to go back?" John asked.

"Negative, the slipspace drive is fried and the lead foils that protects us from radiation were burnt. And even if we have a functional drive, without the 'coordinates' of our dimension, we would have no way to safely and surely navigate through dimensional portal, there is a large chance of us getting to another alternative dimension." Cortana continued. "And considering that we do not have a white, gigantic object trying to squash us, we cannot replicate the same circumstance that led us to this situation, our chances of actually succeeding to go back to our exact dimension is less than 0.1%."

"…"

"What now, John? I am not prepared to face this kind of situation. I need an order, _Captain_." At Cortana's word, the crew expectantly looked at John for an order.

The _'Captain'_ was speechless, he had expected a short scouting mission but considering his tendency of attracting trouble, he had been prepared for a fight against Covenant remnants or even the Flood... not this...

The _'Captain'_ looked at his crew... and resolved himself. He could do this, he is a captain now, he would not betray their expectations.

"Lieutenant Stevenson, inform the others about our... unique situation." John commanded.

"Yes, sir." Stevenson responded. Stevenson is the Communications officer of the UNSC Aide-De-Campe, he has black hair, brown eyes and slight wrinkles on his face.

"Lieutenant Commander, tell the operatives to scout the planet."

"Yes, Captain." The Lieutenant Commander obeyed.

The Lieutenant Commander's name is Andrew Romell, he is the Captains Aide and the socond in command of the ship. He is aged, experience and a veteran during the Covenant-UNSC war. The operatives in question are the ONI operatives stationed on the ship.

"Cortana..." John's gaze softened.

"Yes, Captain?"

"Gather some intelligence on our... counterparts."

"Affirmative, Captain." She said with a smile

"And the rest of you, prepare a course to Earth."

"Yes, sir!"

As soon as everyone got their orders, John stared at the alternative Earth while mulling over their situation.

Such a troublesome day...

* * *

~ Location Classified ~ Mountainous Area ~

* * *

The UNSC Aide-De-Campe is now docked on a mountainous area somewhere in Europe. The ship arrived on Earth with stealth systems engaged to prevent detection.

Everyone had their orders, the operatives are scouting and the rest are trying to repair the damages done to the ship. Considering, the fact that a few Engineers and UNSC mechanics died during the incident on the shield world, a full repair would take a long time.

The main concern now are resources, while they have food, fuel, power and weapons supply, they lack raw materials to make new Engineers and ship parts.

The currently is behind BETA lines, far from any human settlement.

...the _BETA_... Yes, the BETA, John and the crew had been debriefed by Cortana about those aliens that once again hunted humans cruelly and without mercy. Individually, they are quite stupid and instinctive but are able to perform basic tactics such as flanking. Cortana concluded that they operate in some sort of hive-mind... like the Flood.

Their war against humans were eerily similar to the Great war of UNSC, the Covenant and the Flood with a few difference. The Humans of this dimension were constantly being defeated and their forces swarmed and overwhelmed.

The UNSC are more technologically advanced but the Humans native of this dimension are more innovative in some ways, proven by their invention, the 'TSF'.

Most of the crew thinks that the _'TSF'_ are just advance and shield-less version of the Yggdrasil Mark IV Armor Defense System, commonly known as The Mantis.

Cortana is currently opening a bank account and ordering some Titanium alloys but the order process would be slow as the military took most of them.

John decided that they should remain anonymous and that it would be of their best interest to hide from the Government. Their sudden appearance would have sparked some suspicions and unwanted attention. A lot of nations would try to exploit them for their advanced technology, that fact was known to John and the crew especially the ONIs. And besides, John doesn't really trust any Earth Government right now and is wary of just handing advanced weapons to them considering the threat RLF sleeper agents and spies posed.

The crew discussed this topic for a long time. The ONI members suggested that they open up a front to get access to some resource and other things crucial to their survival, at the same time aiding mankind against the extraterrestrial threat.

In the end everyone including John approved of the suggestion and Cortana with the ONI members are discreetly trying to get some background.

~Timeskip: a few weeks~

A few weeks later, Cortana and the ONI members did open a company in Greenland, Reach Industry. It is still relatively small for now despite our immense amount of money, curtesy to Cortana stealing from criminals, as starting a big company right away would be suspicious.

Reach Industry develops and manufactures parts and equipment for TSF manufacturing companies of the EU. The plan was to use the company to get more insight on TSF creation, and develop our own when the time comes. Reach Industry was getting a bit known for their innovation and good quality products despite being a young company.

The board members are the officers of the crew and a few ONI. We hire outsiders to work on our factories and labs but do not allow them access to vital intel. The whole crew was sure that intelligence divisions of various countries would try to infiltrate the company for various reasons. The infiltrators would be treated normally only with tight watch as rejecting them would be too suspicious.

During Cortana's information gathering (hacking and spying), she found something interesting, the CIA, American version of ONI, is subtly sabotaging the TSF development of EU. She speculated that the purpose of this was to make EU countries more reliant on America for TSF and military support.

Following the failure on Operation Palaiologos, a large-scale operation involving the NATO and Warsaw pact forces to capture the Minsk BETA hive in Belarius, the EU and a few NATO countries initiated the ECTSF and cooperated to develop TSF to replace the F-5 based Tornado series, and the Mirage series to further prepare for the future reclamation of Europe.

Unfortunately, one by one the participants withdrew. France first withdrew when they began disagreeing with other countries as to which kind of main engine would be used on the ECTSFs. Then in the later year, Western Germany and a few countries also withdrew as the program doesn't yield much result as they expected.

With most of its original member gone including two of the most influential country in EU, only Britain and a few countries still remain undeterred. On 1987, the EU announced that the ECTSF would change to a 3rd gen high-mobility and maneuverability TSF suited for Hive infiltration like Japanese ones.

But on 1994 or last year, when they were trying to test the prototypes, the Typhoon, they ran to a problem regarding its weight, maneuverability and maintenance. The problem was it is too heavy to move fast and fly, while they could use light metals, it is too expensive and unsuitable for mass production which is the goal of the program. Next were maneuverability and maintenance, while it is rather fast when using light metals, its joints were too bulky to properly move its limbs and it requires frequent maintenance and uses certain specific machines to properly maintain the TSF.

With the constant interference of CIA and the problem they keep encountering, the Euro Fightas were incapable of yielding good results, further discouraging the contributing countries. With little results, the program was doomed to fail and American influence within the EU will drastically increase as they supply TSF and gives military support to the EU who, as a result, would become dependent to America, who doesn't want to reclaim Europe, for TSF for a long time.

However, as expected, the rapid rise of the Reach Industry has gained the attention of the UK government and the Euro Fightas. They have offered partnership and participation on the project, an offer to which John and the others agreed to.

~ Greenland ~ Reach Industry Headquarters ~

A few days has passed since they accepted the offer but time was short and the Euro Fightas' prototype TFS are still below their expectation.

Now, John and Cortana was the office next to the Engineering Wing of the building discussing over how they could contribute to the program.

"We can't send them something too advance or too incompatible with their technology."

"I know…" John replied.

"Energy Shielding, Plasma weapons, and light weapons are also out." Cortana surmised. "The best we can do is improve their weapons and take away unnecessary parts from the TSF to make it lighter." She commented while looking through the window showing the TSF in the Hangar.

It was the failed experimental prototype TSF that they borrowed from the Euro Fightas for study. The workers are currently disassembling it and put it back together after their scanning and tests.

"We could put heavy-guns and compact missile launchers that are lightweight."

The Compact missile is a new type of missile used in land and air engagement. They are as small as a grenade but pack a lot of punch on par with its predecessors. Though it is not quite accurate in long distance and only has thin plating that made them vulnerable to damage before they are even deployed.

"We can, and the maneuverability issue can be easily fixed." Cortana agreed. "But that doesn't solve the problem with maintenance. With only a certain type of machine needed to maintain it, it would be unsuitable for deployment in the battlefield."

"…" John was silent while considering his options. If they implement technology too advanced then mass production would be hard and maintenance would be a pain. If they installed Stealth or Energy shielding then they would be suspicious and he is certain that a lot of intelligence-gathering agencies including CIA who is already watching them would keep a tight watch or will try to monopolize the new technology, something John doesn't want to happen.

So he needed something innovative and revolutionary that is not far with their current technology, something that will sway the other countries to support the program.

John looked outside the window and looked at the workers who are in the middle of stripping the TSF's plating. He then looked at the plating of the TFS laid on the ground and mulled deeply.

Suddenly, he opened the holo-panel and tapped and swiped in concentration.

"Uhh, Chief?" Cortana inquired.

"Look at this, Cortana." The chief implored.

Cortana then looked at the image John drew in the monitor.

Cortana said in uncertainty. "I'm not sure what…" But then her virtual brows rose in realization of the Chief's idea. "Hmm…"

"What do you think?"

"Maybe it could work, it a bit rudimentary though but nothing I can't improve on." Cortana continued. "I'll take this to the engineers and see if we can do it."

Her avatar then blinked out the room and took a copy of the image to the UNSC engineers.

John was left in the room looking at the monitor.

There a relatively thin TSF with almost no plating was showed.

* * *

**Author's note: **Aaand done! I'm sorry if the second chapter took too long. I also apologize if John is too OOC, I did not really read the comics I only played the game. As you can see (read), John and the crew would remain anonymous and would not reveal their existence to any government. A handful of ONI is also stationed on the ship and now stranded with John, they would act covertly and engage in espionage.

Please inform me if there is a plot hole or if I made a mistake somewhere.

Oh! and some OCs are needed for the crew, private message me if you are interested.

Review please and recommendations are welcome no flames though.


End file.
